1988: Pop, Shops and Personal Data | Electric Avenue | Retro Tech | BBC Archive

"The chances are that this computer knows about you."

Fred Harris looks at the world of personal data in the computer age.

More and more shops are being fitted with electronic tills. These tills can send their daily sales information down a telephone line to a main computer. But what happens to the information then? Computers enable companies to compile vast databases, using information collected from their customers. This information can be used for a variety of purposes - Gallup, for example, uses sales information from record shops to calculate the UK top 40 singles chart.

Fashion retailer Next has invested heavily in computer technology in order to keep track of their customers' buying habits. Next uses information gleaned from sales from its high street shops and its popular mail order catalogue, the Next Directory, for both market research and targeted advertising. Next considers that this is all part and parcel of staying connected with their customers in a rapidly changing world - but could this be an intrusion into our personal privacy?

Fred speaks to Godfrey Rust - the Charts Manager of Gallup, John Whitmarsh - the Assistant Development Director at Next, Julie BROWN - the Senior Stock Controller at Gratton, and Sarah Spencer from the National Council of Civil Liberties.
Clip taken from Electric Avenue: What Next, originally broadcast on BBC One, 14 November, 1988.
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